Gardner-Webb names Craft new basketball coach

Gardner-Webb introduced Tim Craft as its new men's basketball head coach on Monday.

Ben Earp/The Star

By Clark Leonard

Published: Monday, July 22, 2013 at 08:44 AM.

BOILING SPRINGS — Gardner-Webb moved quickly to fill its men’s basketball head coaching job, naming East Carolina assistant coach Tim Craft to the position on Monday.

Craft was an assistant at GWU from 2004-07 under former coach Rick Scruggs. He takes over for Chris Holtmann, who took a position as assistant coach at Butler one week earlier.

All of the Runnin’ Bulldog assistant coaches are staying at the school on Craft’s staff. They include Mike Netti, Jay McAuley, Takayo Siddle and director of operations Paul Hemrick.

Craft previously worked with Netti and Holtmann at Gardner-Webb, where he helped recruit and coach Siddle. The new Gardner-Webb coach said he, Netti and Holtmann are best friends. That made keeping the staff together a natural decision.

“Those are the guys that I’d want to hire anyway,” Craft said.

Craft is looking forward to the opportunity to take over a program that won 21 games, its most as a Division I program, while reaching the CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament in 2012-13.

It’s a different challenge than at ECU, where he spent the past three seasons under head coach Jeff Lebo. The program there had 13 straight losing seasons before Lebo arrived and a Pirates basketball shirt couldn’t be found in town. The staff had to help players believe in themselves

BOILING SPRINGS — Gardner-Webb moved quickly to fill its men’s basketball head coaching job, naming East Carolina assistant coach Tim Craft to the position on Monday.

Craft was an assistant at GWU from 2004-07 under former coach Rick Scruggs. He takes over for Chris Holtmann, who took a position as assistant coach at Butler one week earlier.

All of the Runnin’ Bulldog assistant coaches are staying at the school on Craft’s staff. They include Mike Netti, Jay McAuley, Takayo Siddle and director of operations Paul Hemrick.

Craft previously worked with Netti and Holtmann at Gardner-Webb, where he helped recruit and coach Siddle. The new Gardner-Webb coach said he, Netti and Holtmann are best friends. That made keeping the staff together a natural decision.

“Those are the guys that I’d want to hire anyway,” Craft said.

Craft is looking forward to the opportunity to take over a program that won 21 games, its most as a Division I program, while reaching the CollegeInsider.com postseason tournament in 2012-13.

It’s a different challenge than at ECU, where he spent the past three seasons under head coach Jeff Lebo. The program there had 13 straight losing seasons before Lebo arrived and a Pirates basketball shirt couldn’t be found in town. The staff had to help players believe in themselves

A self-described gym rat growing up, Craft knew for a long time that he wanted to be a coach.

“I feel like it’s a way that you can impact people every day,” Craft said.

He started as a high school head coach, then worked at Pensacola (Fla.) Junior College before his first stint at Gardner-Webb.

The 2012-13 ECU team averaged 76.5 points and 7.8 3-pointers per game. Craft hopes to employ some of the same schemes at Gardner-Webb.

“We want to play fast when the opportunity’s there,” Craft said. “But we’re also going to take good shots.”

Defense, a focus under Holtmann, will also remain at the forefront.

“I want this team to be founded on being able to guard people,” Craft said.

Craft worked with Lebo for six seasons, the first three of those at Auburn. That includes a 24-win campaign in 2009 at Auburn and the 2013 CollegeInsider.com championship at ECU.

He called Lebo, who played at UNC from 1985-89 and then in the NBA, “an amazing mentor, boss and friend.” Despite their differences in experience — Craft graduated from Florida but didn’t play collegiately — Craft was struck by Lebo’s ability to relate to people on a daily basis.

“He has absolutely no ego,” Craft said.

Vice President for Athletics Chuck Burch said ECU’s Maurice Kemp reached out to him about the work Craft did in helping him develop his game after not playing much his first season. Kemp was the CIT Most Valuable Player and a first-team All-Conference USA selection in 2012-13.

Burch said having the assistants who know the players and a fresh set of eyes in Craft should make for a good combination.

“The culture of this team is to work hard,” Burch said. “They want to be challenged. They want to work hard.”

Burch said the day Holtmann’s departure was announced, he had heard from 60 people inquiring about the job by 7 p.m. The search honed in on four candidates with GWU ties, with Craft’s basketball acumen and emphasis on faith setting him apart.

“Tim was the best fit,” Burch said.

Ever since leaving Gardner-Webb in 2007, Craft had entertained thoughts of one day possibly having the necessary experience to return as the program’s leader.